Demo or not, it's not that good of a song. It just sounds like something they threw together at the last minute so they would have a "new" song to play on the current tour. This song isn't even up to the standard of the worst song on Death Magnetic. Maybe the main riff sticks around but the song won't make the new album the way it is now.

Even the lyrics aren't "finished".

I thought that people knew the way they released/titled demo songs by now. Apparently not.

The first actual song they played from DM was Cyanide, and that was not that long before the album was released. @ Ozzfest 2008, if I'm not mistaken.

Agreed. Sure, it's not like it was in the eighties, but then again, he's no Ronnie. Nobody is.

I saw them twice in the eighties, he wasn't that good back then, at least at the shows I saw. I think he takes better care of his voice now, he takes it seriously and does the best he can. All I ever hear is James sucks, and the band sucks live now. If someone saw Metallica and James sounded bad, I believe it. I just find it hard to believe that he's that bad consistently. Also as a band they're much better live than everyone says.

I listened to a little bit of this. It's a demo, and that's fine. What was I heard was ok.

The bigger problem is that I don't really care about Metallica much anymore. When a fan loses that passion, the music becomes diminished. For years and years, I've said if Iron Maiden covered Mary Had A Little Lamb, it would the best damn Mary I've ever heard. MARRRRRYYYY!!!!!

Metallica has just the opposite problem with me. I don't hate their music but it hasn't mattered much to me. My core Metallica playlist is called Metallica Schmetallica (Ecstasy Of Gold + all studio album + S&M in release order usually shuffled on playback). I think when I start to feel like Metallica cares again, perhaps I will too.

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Jaco died for our sins so that modern bass players could be free to play more and be heard.

The sad thing is...I actually think they DO care. I think this is the best they can possibly do at this point.

Metallica has been together for something like 30 years. It's been a huge business for 2/3 of that. I'm not sure what exactly left for them to conquer with their music. It's really hard to maintain passion for anything that long, esp with the success they've had.

And to be fair, Metallica will never produce another Master Of Puppets. Even if they did miraculously, it wouldn't be the same. It couldn't. I remember hearing that album back in the day before Justice came out... they can't produce anything to rival those feelings anymore than Maiden could produce something to rival that first time I heard Where Eagles Dare. Re-popping a cherry? Not happening. It's a no-win scenario. I recognize that.

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Jaco died for our sins so that modern bass players could be free to play more and be heard.

I'm just getting the feeling you're attributing the quality of the music to a lack of effort, as most people do with any veteran band that slips in quality. It may be that, but I think it's also possible that it's simply a lack/decrease in ability, and that maybe the effort hasn't changed much. Just the quality.

The song honestly sounds like it was written in about 10 minutes. For real I'm sure they got together for rehearsals for this tour and pulled it out of their ass the first day because they promised a new song on the tour. I liked Death Magnetic and I'm sure the next album will be just as good when they put some time into it but come on, those are the most typical riffs lumped together in an 8 minute song.